With Just A Little Help
by delkon
Summary: Christmastime...Sarah's forgotten all about the Labyrinth...can Jareth help her remember?
1. Default Chapter

Story: With Just A Little Help  
  
by: Delkon  
  
rating: PG  
  
Summary: This is my response to the Christmas Challenge put forth on Marysia's message board. Sarah's forgotten all about the Labyrinth and her time there. How will Jareth help her remember? And who's the guy with the weird sweater and how does he tie in to all this? And who put the ram in the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong?  
  
Disclaimer: I have no money, Just borrowing the characters and having a bit of Christmas-type fun, See?   
  
First Chapter of Two!  
  
Outside of the office building where Sarah Williams worked, the snow was coming down steadily. Some of the snow falling in front of the building suddenly swirled around as if caught in a miniature windstorm, the flakes gathering together until a vague shape could be seen. As the snow continued to swirl, the shape grew larger and larger until, all at once, a man was standing where the snow had been. Pausing once to remove some snow from one of his black leather boots, the man made his way into the office building.  
  
The security guard looked at the visitor warily, especially making note of his complexion and his choice of clothing, reluctantly allowed the man entrance to the bank of elevators behind his station when all the correct identification and authorization forms had been confirmed. The man made his way to the last elevator on the left and didn't stop walking as the elevator doors opened right when he was in front of it and immediately closed after he had entered the small chamber.  
  
The receptionist on Sarah's floor was completely caught by surprise when the visitor showed up in front of her desk. No one had been expecting any packages or visitors of any sort today. After all it was the annual Christmas party and no work was to be done today. She relaxed slightly when she saw that the man had a package for Sarah Williams. Sarah would be the only one not at the party, instead focusing her attention on her last bit of work before the holidays. The receptionist looked the visitor over and then pointed down the hall to her left and said that she was in the last office on the right. After the man had walked down the hallway, the receptionist shook her head and said something like "It takes all kinds..."  
  
Sarah was not having a good time. She had been working feverishly on her report and although it had seemed like she had worked hours on it, about thirty minutes had passed in reality. Then her secretary just had to go to that damn party that was being held in the big conference room downstairs. Finally, the piece of paper with the corrected figures on it had just gone sailing off the edge of her desk and landed at the edge of the doorway to her office. As she was bent over retrieving the errant paper, a pair of boots appeared in her field of vision. She saw her reflection looking back at her from their mirrored surface. Her eyes followed the boots up to where they were topped by a pair of red cordouroy trousers. As Sarah slowly straightened back up, she saw that whoever the person was, they were wearing a thick, dark green sweater with a huge elf face on it. The elf's hat was a giant red triangle and it made her eyes travel up to the person's face. A moment of uneasiness was suddenly replaced by relief as she stared into the face of a young man wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses who was looking back at her with a smile on his face. His cheeks and nose were a little redder than usual but other than that, he looked harmless.  
  
"Miss Sarah Williams?" He asked in a rather mild tone.  
  
"Yes? Can I help you?" She said moving back towards her desk.  
  
The young man moved into the office and for the first time, Sarah saw that he had a large brown package in one hand. He set the package on top of her desk. As he moved away, Sarah could see that his right ear appeared to be pointed. The man looked at the floor, brought his hand up to the right side of his head, and brushed his black hair back over the ear. His cheeks took on a deeper red color.  
  
"Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus say Hello." He said when he looked back up at Sarah.  
  
"Who?" She asked, puzzled by the names.  
  
"The gift will explain everything." The stranger said, pointing to it.  
  
Sarah looked at the package. She looked back up at the stranger and then back down to the package. Shrugging, she tore through the outer layer of wrapping and uncovered another box, this one wrapped in white and tied up with a white ribbon. The ribbon had an ornate bow in the middle of it and a gift card. Sarah looked at the gift card and saw that it said To: Sarah, Our Friend From: Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and Ludo. She saw that the first two names had been fairly neatly written, but the last name looked like it had been written by a six year old, just learning how to write. She reached out and touched the card. A sudden burst of white light caught Sarah by surprise and she had to shut her eyes against it.   
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Jareth was bored beyond belief. No one had been wished away in a long time. He sat in his throne as he usually did, with one leg thrown over the arm. He looked around at the goblins in his throne room. They were a sorry lot. Good only for a momentary distraction but it never held his attention for very long. As he sat there, he thought again of Sarah. Wondering how she was doing at her chosen place of employment. He thought about her often, but had never been to visit her again after that first time, when she had said that she had needed all of them. That was when he realized that he needed her too, and that scared him. So he vowed never to visit her again, even if she begged and pleaded with him. But after that first time, she had never summoned any of them again.  
  
Curiousity got the better of him, so Jareth held up a hand and let a crystal form in it. Intent on seeing what Sarah was doing, he concentrated on the crystal. However, instead of the crystal forming a vision of Sarah, all Jareth could see in it was falling snow. He concentrated even harder and the falling snow grew in intensity. Jareth took the crystal into his hand and shook it and the snow inside just swirled around. A sharp pain pierced his glove hand. Surprised, Jareth let the crystal drop and when it shattered on the stone in front of his throne, snow burst forth from it in an explosion of white. The goblins were surprised by the sudden blanket of snow. Some of the smarter ones looked to their king for an explanation, but as the snow settled around them, Jareth was nowhere to be seen.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Sarah opened her eyes again and saw nothing but white above her. She found that she was lying down and as she got up, she saw that she was no longer in her office but was in a snow-covered field. All around her were mountains and she saw that the field was in a valley, surrounded on all sides by mountains. She looked down at herself and saw that she was now wearing some sort of long winter coat, black with white buttons and she had on white mittens with black thumbs. Her pants were now a black dress and she was wearing what felt like fur-lined boots underneath.   
  
She wondered to herself why she wasn't in a fetal position mumbling right now. This was the craziest thing that had ever happened to her. She wondered if she could be dreaming all this, but the coldness of the snow felt real enough, and the winter coat also felt real enough. She had always told herself that if she ever found herself in a position of not knowing where she was or what was happening to her, she'd keep a clear head. Apparently that's what was happening to her right now. One minute, she's in her office working, the next, she's in Switzerland, for all she knew, and she was still conscious and not sitting down in the snow, wailing like a madwoman.  
  
A sudden groan brought her attention back to her surroundings. Near where she was, she could now see the outline of someone lying face down. As she rolled the person over, she saw that the person was wearing a white coat similar to hers, but with white pants and black gloves. As she looked to the person's face, the eyes shot open and whoever it was grabbed her before she could blink. She now was staring at the angry face of a strange-looking man she had never seen before.  
  
"Who are you and what have you done to me?" Jareth wanted to ask, but couldn't get the words out at the sight of who exactly it was he was holding onto. He was holding Sarah! Startled, he dropped his hands from her arms and looked at her. She was even more beautiful in person than she was when he had watched her from a crystal. But when he looked into her eyes, he saw no gleam of recognition in them. She had forgetten him, forgotten them all, apparently. He looked around at their surroundings and saw that they were in some valley somewhere.   
  
"Who are you? Where am I? Why are we here?" Sarah asked as the stranger looked around. She was surprised when he grabbed her, then let go, studied her face intensely, and then looked away.  
  
"Who am I? My name is Jareth. Where are you? Your guess is as good as mine. I've already tried to leave and I can't. As to why we are here? I haven't the slightest idea." The man said as he got to his feet and helped Sarah up as well.   
  
"Well maybe we can ask whoever lives over there if they know where we are, although I swear that cabin wasn't there earlier. Is that okay with you...Jared?" Sarah asked.  
  
"It's Jareth." Jareth said as he too spied the cabin off to one side of the valley, knowing that it hadn't been there when he had looked around the first time. He tried to summon his magic to investigate his surroundings further but found that he didn't have access to them here in this accursed valley.  
  
"Let's go see if we can get some help, Gareth, it's cold out here and if that's smoke coming out of that cabin's chimney then I want to get in there as quickly as I can." And with that, Sarah started stomping through the snow in the direction of the cabin.  
  
"It's pronounced Jareth" Jareth said as he followed Sarah's path towards the cabin.  
  
*~*~*~*~* 


	2. With Just A Little Help, Part 21

With Just A Little Help, Part 2.1  
  
by: Delkon  
  
rating: PG  
  
Darn...  
  
Author's Note: Well, this was supposed to be the full second chapter of With Just A Little Help, unfortunately the well's run dry on a point in the story, so until the water's flowing again, this will be the first part of the second chapter...  
  
Jareth and Sarah made their way towards the cabin, both having to trudge along through the snow. As they approached, the cabin grew larger and larger as the snow began to fall more and more heavily. By the time they reached the door to the cabin, the wind was whipping the snow around them at an almost blizzard-like rate. When knocking failed to gain a response, Jareth shrugged and tried the door. It was unlocked. They both cautiously entered the darkened cabin. To their right, they could see the fire roaring in the fireplace. All of a sudden, a bright light flashed in front of them, threatening to blind them. As the afterimage of the flash diminished, they could see that the cabin was now well-lit and appeared to be decorated for the Christmas season.   
  
Jareth quickly made his way to stand in front of the fire. Sarah slowly followed, looking around at the candles and oil lanterns that were placed around the interior of the cabin. A tree was decorated and placed to the left of the fireplace, and greenery was hung on the mantel above the fireplace and over the various doors that she could see.  
  
"Who do you think this place belongs to?" She asked.  
  
"I've no idea. Do you?" Jareth asked, turning to face away from the fire, warming his backside.  
  
"None whatsoever. I'm just glad that we got out of that snowstorm." Sarah said as she began to remove the heavy coat she was wearing, revealing a long black victorian-looking dress. She looked around and spotted some hooks in the wall by the front door. She walked over to them, hung up her coat, and then turned to walk back to the fireplace. She was surprised to see that Jareth had already shed his outer coat and was now wearing what looked to be some sort of white military uniform.   
  
"Until that storm lets up, I think we're stuck here." He said as he looked around some more at the cabin's interior. He walked over to a table that was set up to one side of the fireplace and noticed a small number of packages that, much to his surprise, had his name on some of them, while others had Sarah's name on them.   
  
*~*~*~*~* 


End file.
